Starting a Blog to Promote Your Books

Whether you are a new author just starting out in the world of self-promotion, or you are more experienced and have already written several titles, you may be looking into how you can promote your books thorough a blog. Many authors think that because blogging involves a completely different writing style to books, it is not relevant to them, or that they wouldn't know where to start. The truth is that promoting your books on a blog is not only a great tool, but is not as complicated as you may think. These tips will give you some ideas for how to best use a blog to get you and your books out there.

Find a Good Website Builder

The first thing you will need to do is find a suitable website builder. It is a good idea to host your blog on your author website, so look for one that is suitable for this. Don't make more work for yourself than is necessary – find one that is easy to use and if you are not the most technologically-minded person, why not try here, where there are a range of templates available.

When you have found a site that caters to your needs, consider your domain name carefully. Ideally, you should use your author name so that it is easier for your readers to find you. You should also make it easy write and say, which will make it easier to remember; for example, too many hyphens or special characters are difficult to remember, and mistakes are more likely to be made when inputting it into the browser.

Write from the Heart

The key to writing good content is to write what you know, and what you care about. Readers will be able to tell if you are writing about something that doesn't interest you and they will switch off. Writing passionately and emotionally is the best way to engage your readers. Let them know you are a real person by adding a photo, an 'about me' section and a contact form. You could even add the odd anecdote about yourself so that readers feel like they are connecting with you.

Write What Readers Want to Read

Put yourself if your readers' shoes – what would you want to read on your favorite author's blog? Although you don't want to make every single post about your books, your posts should be linked in some way. If you write historical fiction, for example, you can write history related posts. Other ideas for posts could include books FAQs, character interviews, lists of your favorite books or authors, or competitions.

Research

Research is key when starting a new blog. Try to figure out who your target audience is – young adults, moms, retired men? Once you know this, you can figure out what sort of content is popular among them and write your blog accordingly. If you want to write a piece which is slightly outside your usual area, make sure you research it thoroughly first.

If you are not used to writing content or web copy, you could also do some research in this area. Consider taking a course in copywriting to find out how to market your words effectively, or research which keywords you could use to get your blog more views.

Be Consistent

There is no point in having a blog that you only post on once a year, as readers will forget it exists. Plan regular posts to keep readers engaged and remember to spread word of it. As difficult as you may find it, you need to market your blog and yourself – make yourself prominent, especially on the run-up to book releases, and make sure your book information is available across all your posts, not just recent ones. If you can't work this into every post, consider putting information or cover images into a sidebar on each page.

Make Your Ending Strong

End your blog posts with a call-to-action by asking readers to share the post on social media, subscribe to future blog posts or a newsletter; you could even offer something in return, like advance reader copies, or create a comment section to encourage interaction. The footnote of a blog post is also a good place to promote book, especially if you haven't managed to mention it in the post itself.

Interact Interaction is a great way to build your blog's reach, and it goes both ways. Visit other blogs or sites and leave comments or get in touch with the writer to see if they will post a review of your book, or an interview with you. Writing guest posts for other blogs, especially niche ones will help you to reach new readers you may not otherwise reach.

The only limit to a blog is your imagination. There is a huge range of articles that can be written to fit in with your niche, if you can find a way, and the more variety you add to your site, the more readers you are likely to reach.